


Dark Secret, Lust, and Truth

by jwisdomhheartmmoon



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M, Murder Mystery, Romance, alternative universe- no killing game, second love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 19:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11835138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jwisdomhheartmmoon/pseuds/jwisdomhheartmmoon
Summary: Shuuichi Saihara is a struggle of solving the mystery about the murder of someone he was close to. His uncle decides to introduce Saihara to a person, who will help for a difficult investigation. Saihara once meets that person, his crazy life is beginning and dark secrets slowly come out.





	1. Heartbroken Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, finally here’s my first Oumasai fanfic! I try to do my best with an idea of the title on my fanfic. This is an alternate universe of the school has no killing game and all sixteen students have a normal life, but they still, has SHSL title. I would like to thanks to my brother for helping me to fix my grammar errors. I try to do my best on writing the mystery genre, as it’s my first time. It is slightly Saiede/saimatsu couple, but the main couple will be Oumasai in my fanfic!
> 
> There’s the possible R-15 content in some chapters future. I know I don’t need to introduce the characters’ talents, but it’s important to the beginning of my story. It's the mild spoiler of NDRV3, but it's nothing to do with the story in a game.
> 
> Update: That’s completely edited version now!
> 
> So, I hope you guys enjoy it!

The never-ending rainy weather creates a gray atmosphere and is an influence upon the bad mood of the people. A teenage emo boy sits on his bed while holding onto his deep, dark world, surrounded by an aura of black and gray clouds. His name is Saihara Shuichi, whose talent is that of a detective, but only has a part-time job at his uncle’s detective agency because he’s still in high school. He has a black uniform with five buttons on the right side and two buttons on the left side, which he wears for his job and also for school. However, he is currently wearing a white shirt with a black jacket and light blue jeans. Saihara is sad in his darkness because he lost his girlfriend Akamatsu Kaede, who was murdered two weeks ago. Her talent was playing the piano. Once Saihara found out that Akamatsu was murdered, it had a hard impact on his life. He started to neglect his job and stopped going to school.

Saihara and Akamastu dated each other for one year. When Saihara saw her dead body, he felt regret for the one thing he never told her. He holds the music CD _Clair De Lune,_ by Claude Debussy, that she always played to cheer up him. Then, he starts crying on the CD until his uncle interrupts him by knocking on his door. As his uncle opens the door to show his face, his hair is a mess and he has a mustache on his mouth. He then tells his nephew that his friends are coming to visit him. Saihara prefers to be alone, but he doesn’t want to make them worry any longer. “Let them come in.”

“Yo, Shuichi. We are coming to check on you. How are you feeling today?”, says a boy with purple hair and a beard, Kaito Momota, who is wearing his white t-shirt with a red design of a mask and a purple unbuttoned coat. His talent is that of an astronaut.

“Hello, Momota-kun, I guess I’m okay now. Hello, Harukawa-san”.  Saihara’s eyes look gloomy as greets Maki Harukawa, who has dark brown pigtails hair with red hair ties. She is also wearing a scarlet-colored sailor outfit with long socks of the same color, a black plaid skirt with a slight green tint, and brown ankle boots. Her talent is that of a child caregiver, although she dislikes children for some reason.

“You don’t seem ok to me at all”, Harukawa observes of Saihara.

“Is that the music CD that your girlfriend always played for you? It’s such a beautiful song”. Momta points at the CD Saihara is holding.

“Yes, my uncle gave me the CD when we found it inside Akamatsu’s backpack next to her corpse”, Saihara said with a sad smile.

“Ummm..do you want to hear some interesting news?”.  Momota tries to change the subject and begins to talk about how their teacher keeps talking about a mysterious student who has never appeared in the class since the first day of school.

“Mysterious student? Come to think about it. We didn’t listen to our teacher because she kept talking about it every day. We thought a student would appear soon. However, I’m curious, who is the mysterious student and what kind of talent do they have?”, says Saihara.  He never realized that a mysterious student had been absent long from their school.  

“Our teacher spoke of something strange at times. She mentioned that the mysterious person turned out to be a boy who is very intelligent and complains that he must come to her class”, explains Momonta.

“Intelligent student? If he is, I wonder why our school chose him”.  Harukwawa is suspicious of the mysterious person.

Saihara reminds Harukawa what the purpose of their new school is in relation to their future, stating, “Remember, our school chose as recognition of our talents, not our intelligence”.

The government established a new school called Ultimate Academy for the Gifted that was only for elite students recognized for their talents. The strange fact about the school is that it used to be a prison school for juveniles before it was taken down. Ultimate Academy for the Gifted was built a few years ago and the first gifted school program began this year. The government hopes the gifted school program will be successful. The first group to attend the Ultimate Academy for the Gifted only had 16 students. However, there are two missing students: Akamastsu Kaede who was murdered, and a mysterious person who never appears. The school also provides research labs for the students so they can study and practice on their skills.

“Never mind that. Saihara, when will you come back to our school?”,  Harukawa asks.

“Umm...I don’t know. I might not go back to school anymore”. Saihara is not sure if he will.

“Shuichi! You’ve been absent at our school for two weeks since we found out Akamatsu died. Remember, not only us, but our classmates are worried about you too”. Monota tries to encourage him about going back to school.

“Our school brings back memories about a lot of things Akamatsu-san and I did together. I don’t know if I can face the fact that she no longer exists at our school anymore!”, Saihara is shaking his body, as he is scared and starts to cry.

“Shuichi…”. Momota is trying to convince him again, but Harukawa holds onto his shoulder as she shakes her head. “Don’t. Look at him. He is a mix of emotions.  He’s scared, sad, and confused now. I think he would like to be left alone now. It’s time for us leave”.

Saihara thanks his friends for visiting him and says he needs time to think about his own decision. Momota and Harukawa begin to leave Saihara’s room, but Momota stops and turns around to Saihara, “I just want to tell you that you’re not alone. Please remember we will always here for you, Shuichi”.

Monmota finally leaves before Saihara gives his farewell to them. Saihara begins to think about Momota’s words. Then, he decides to put the CD in the CD player and begins to listen to the music. This reminds him of Akamatsu and he begins to dream that she is there playing the music for him. His memories of her begin to come out of his mind, about the times they had fun, or were sad, or fought, or were happy together. Saihara begins to cry, as he doesn’t know what to do without her. However, he thinking of what Momota’s said, and how maybe it’s time for him to go outside and get her off of his mind. He also remembers that Akamastsu often tells him to not give up and keep moving forward. Saihara decides to keep trying the advice of both Momota’s and Akamastsu. His uncle knocks on the door, “Shuichi, I would like to talk with you. Come to my office when you are ready”.  

He wonders what his uncle wants to talk about and feels something unexpected will happen. Then, he goes to his uncle’s office and opens the door, “Uncle, I am here”.

“Hello Shuichi, you came. I’m glad you finally got out of your own room”. His uncle smiles.

“Well, I just felt I needed to do it. So, what would you like to talk about?”, Saihara says.

“All right, let me warn you. It will be very personal for us. It’s about the investigation of Akamatsu-san’s murder”. His uncle’s facial expression becomes serious.  

His uncle explains how he hasn’t started to investigate the murder of Akamatsu yet but has instead held onto the file since they found her body two weeks ago. He’s been taking his time to decide what he should do with the investigation and has finally decided to hand the file over to Saihara. Saihara is in shock and asks if it is ok for him to take it because it’s very personal for him. His uncle explains that it will be a good test for him as a detective on how to handle files that are personal. He also tells a story of how he once investigated the murder of someone he was close to.

His uncle asks one final question, “Saihara, will you take it or not?”.

Saihara begins to think about his answer, _I wonder if I will be alright to handle the investigation of my own late girlfriend? It will be a very challenging test. It could be too personal for me. However, I don’t deny that I want to find out who killed Akamastsu-san._

“I will take it”, Saiahra gives his answer.

“Ok. I’m counting on you now. When will you start to do it?”, his uncle hands the file to Saihara.

“I will start to do it after school. I plan to go back to school tomorrow”. Saihara takes the file.

“Oh, I see. I’m so glad. That’s good for you. I’m worried that you've stayed in your room this whole time. So, you can leave”, his uncle says.

Saihara is going to leave but stops when his uncle speaks, “Remember, it’s a test. I want to see how you can handle the balance between work and your personal life. Please be careful. Don’t let it take you over”.

The next day, Saihara finally goes back to school. However, he feels so nervous to face that place without Akamatsu-san there when he stands up at the front of the classroom. Saihara slowly enters into his classroom. His classmates turn to look at him and it feels so awkward. Saihara is surprised when they become so excited and come to him to welcome him back. Amami Rantaro, who has a mysterious talent, asks Saihara if he will be all right now. Saihara nods and says he feels much better. Their teacher appears at the front of them, notices Saihara is there and welcomes him back too. She changes her smile into a frown when she notices a mysterious student is still not here yet, “Such an annoying student. How long can he keep not appearing? I hope someone will volunteer to convince him. Well, forget it. Time to start the class!”

In his free time, Saihara chats with Momota and Harukawa at his research lab room. He explains to them about how his uncle gave him the assignment of investigating the murder of Akamatsu. They are very shocked!  Momota asks Saihara if he will be alright with handling the very personal file on Akamatsu. Saihara nods and says he wants to do it to face his own challenge. He also explains how his uncle wants to test him for handling the balance between work and his personal life. Momota and Harukawa are praying that Saihara won’t become reckless by letting his emotions mix with his job. Harukawa offers their help to Saihara on his investigation, but he rejects it. He must do it alone.

“Well, good luck. I’m so happy to see you in school, Shuichi! It’s nice to see you have a bright smile again since you dated Akamatsu-san”. Momota leans with his arm on Saihara’s shoulder and smiles.

“Momota”, Harukawa glares at him.

Momota realizes he shouldn't talk about her after Saihara finally came back, “Oops. I’m sorry…”.

“It’s okay. I need to get her off of my mind for a while. Momota-kun, thank you for trying to wake me up”. Saihara thank, Momota.

“Well, I just want to cheer you up a bit”. Momota says while scratching the back of his head.

“Don’t forget to ask us if you need help”. Harukawa’s voice has calmed down.

“I will keep that in my mind”, Saihara says, but is not sure if he will ask or not.

He begins to work on his investigation after school is finished. He first reads the file about Akamatsu’s background, autopsy, location, and time of her death until he notices something strange about a picture of her corpse. It shows her wearing a beautiful gold necklace that has a rose. Saihara knows she never wore that jewelry before. He also doesn’t remember buying that jewelry for her before and wants to find out more about the gold necklace. On the computer in his uncle’s office, he researches gold necklaces to find out which jewelry store the gold necklace is from. Saihara becomes very frustrated when too many jewelry stores appear on the computer until he finally finds one that matches with the gold necklace, called Charming Palace. Then, he reads and writes down the directions and goes to Charming Palace. Charming Palace is a large store that is easy to recognize as it looks like a big castle with a rose on top of the store. Saihara finds the name to be too ridiculous, and it looks like a place where dreaming girls come to meet their prince charming. He shakes his head to get focused on finding the clues and walks to Charming Palace. Once he enters Charming Palace, it has the feel and creepy atmosphere of greedy people who want to find and keep treasures. It’s too much gold and diamond jewelry for him.   

He walks up to one of the jewelers who stands near the glass box at the front. She asks him if she can help. Saihara shows a gold necklace to ask her if it belongs to that store. She confirms it does and explains that the necklace is very popular for boyfriends to buy for their girlfriends. Saihara shows her the picture of Akamatsu in hopes that she knew or had seen her before. She apologizes, and says she never saw her before and asks him if he plans to buy it. Saihara rejects, but thanks her for taking her time to help him. However, he thinks it would be nice to buy the gift for Akamastu’s birthday if she were still alive. They bow to each other. When he leaves the store, he is very disappointed about finding nothing related to the murder of Akamastsu, as he thought he finally found a clue. It makes no sense that Akamatsu had a gold necklace but the woman had never seen her before. Maybe her friend bought it for her? Or did Akamastsu…? Saihara shakes his head and knows she would never do something to break their relationship. Saihara’s mind fills with stress once he realizes the investigation is more challenging than he thought. It’s a totally different job from being an assistant detective. He begins to think about asking his two best friends for help but rejects his own idea. Momota and Harukawa did like Akamastsu for her optimist personality, skills as a pianist, and how inspiring and hopeful she was, but they were not close with her like Saihara was. _Who else was close with Akamastsu?_ Saihara tries to figure out who it was.  A memory comes to his mind; it is Amami, who was good friends and on friendly terms with Akamatsu. He creates a theory: maybe Amami knew something strange about Akamatsu before she died?

“Saihara? What a coincidence to meet you here”, someone appears in front of him.

Saihara jumps from being scared and surprised. He turns to the person, “Amami, you really scared me”.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to”, Amami says.

 _It’s a perfect time_ , Saihara asks Amami if he has time to talk with him.

Saihara and Amami sit and eat together at the café. Saihara orders coffee and a simple sandwich while Amami orders a water drink and vegetable soup. Saihara wants to ask Amami a question about Akamatsu, “When was the last time you saw Akamatsu-san?”.

“I believe I spent time with her in her research room the day before she died. She requested that I design and paint with colorful nail polish on her nails. That was for her date with you”, Amami answers.

“Umm..well. Ahem. Did you see Akamatsu acting strange?”, Saihara blushes.

“Huh? Oh yes, she did. I asked her what’s wrong with her. She told me she is very afraid of something”, Amami says.

“She was afraid? What was it?” Saihara asks with surprise.

“She wouldn't tell me many details, but it could be a dark secret she had,” Amami says.

 _Why she didn’t tell me in the first place? Why did she open her feelings to Amami?_ Saihara begins to feel jealous inside.

“Oh, don’t get the wrong idea. Nothing happened between us, we were just good friends. It’s not that she kept her secret with me from you, but she didn’t want to worry you. That’s all. I know she did love you.”, Amami notices Saihara’s jealousy.

“Umm, it’s not that I suspected Akamatsu-san cheated on me, but I am just surprised that she came to you for comfort. I remember she acted so strange when we were on a date before her murder. The truth is that I have regret for one thing I never told her”, Saihara says with a mixture of feelings.

“What did you never tell her?”, Amami asks curiously.

“It’s secret”, Saihiara says with a sad smile.

Three days later, he sits on a chair in his uncle’s office and stares at the gold necklace on his desk while his laptop is still open. He feels really worn out from working on his investigation for three days. Even though he interviewed with people, did research on the computer, and looked for clues, nothing he found had any relation to the murder of Akamatsu. He smacks his head down onto his desk in frustration for having no leads and not finding any clues! Noticing Saihara’s frustration, his uncle enters the office and asks him if he’s alright.

“I am fine”, Saihara says while rubbing his forehead.

“How’s your investigation going, any progress?”, his uncle asks.

“Well, my investigation is not progressing yet. I am really frustrated that I haven’t found any clues leading to the next step in solving the mystery. I admit it has been really difficult for me”, Saihara explains.

His uncle asks one last question, “Did your personal life influence your work yet?”.

“Huh? No, I don’t think so”, Saihara says confused.

“I totally understand how you are feeling. It was the same for me during my difficult investigation. I guess I have no choice, but I’m going to ask an annoying person for help”, his uncle sighs.

“Annoying person?”, Saihara doesn’t understand who his uncle is talking about.

Well, I didn’t tell you my secret. Please take a seat on the couch. I’m going to make our coffee”, his uncle goes to the corner of the kitchen.

His uncle and Saihara sit on the couch and drink their coffee together, “The truth is I made my connection with a person who helped me on my difficult investigation last year. That person was the leader of the gang called ‘DICE’”.

“DICE? You made a connection with a dangerous gang in a situation like this?!?! That’s so crazy!”, Saihara is in shock!

“Relax. I promise you, that gang was the most harmless I ever met. They only did mild crimes like making pranks, vandalism, and petty theft. They made a strange motto: ‘don’t kill anyone’”, his uncle said to clarify who DICE is.

“Mild crimes? ‘Don’t kill anyone’? They really are a weird gang. That’s so rare”, Saihara says.

His uncle finally tells his story about how he met the leader of DICE.

* * *

 

Last year, Saihara’s uncle was very frustrated from trying to solve the difficult investigation. Once when he was very tired and on his way home, he noticed a woman calling for help because her purse was stolen by someone who quickly ran away with it. He chased the thief into an alleyway. As he entered the alleyway, he looked for the person but they had disappeared. Just as he was going to give up, the person finally appeared in front of him.

“Are you looking for this, or for me?", said the thief as he held out the purse.

"Please give it back to the woman", said Saihara’s uncle.

“Oh, I can’t do that”, said the thief.

“Oh, you-”, Saihara’s uncle was going to arrest him.

“However, I can give it back to you if you’re interested in my information”, the thief offered.

“Information?”, Saihara’s uncle looked puzzled.

"It's related to your difficult investigation", said the thief as he revealed that he had a note.

“What? How you-”, Saihara’s uncle was surprised.

“Do you want it or not?” the thief interrupted.

“Ummm, yes..” Saihara’s uncle answered without thinking.

The thief returned the purse and gave him the note... He read the note, which had inside information and related a lot to his difficult investigation. He was going to ask the thief something, but they had disappeared again. He did not expect that one week later the note would easily lead him to getting the next step in solving the difficult mystery. He met the thief again, who surprised him as a prank.

“Surprise!”, the thief giggled.

“You scared me”, his uncle sighed, as he never thought that the thief would be so mischievous and pull off such a prank.

“Does my information help you?”, the thief asked on him.

“Yes, it did. I wanted to say thank you to you. If you did the crimes, why are you helping me?”, said Saihara’s uncle, confused.

“It’s for a reason. Oh, I didn’t introduce myself yet. I am the leader of the gang called ‘DICE’”, the thief finally explained.

“DICE? The gang? What’s your name?”, his uncle tried to walk backward.

“If I tell you my name, you will get the curse and maybe you will die”, the leader said.

Saihara's uncle came to his senses and realized the danger around him, and decided it was time to leave, but the leader confirmed, “Of course, that was a lie. I’m a liar, after all. Heeheee”.

“Threatening death is not funny”, Saihara’s uncle said angrily.

“Hahaha, forgive me. I’ve never killed anyone because I hate it. I made the motto, ‘Don’t kill anyone’ for my family (gang). Ahem, I have to offer you something and you will not say no”, the leader became serious.

“Why would I say no?”, his uncle said.

“I will help you with your difficult investigation if you need, but you have to exchange something with me for information. What do you think?”, the leader said.

Saihara’s uncle was not sure at first because he had just met the leader and couldn’t trust the gangs. He took five minutes to think about taking the leader’s offer or not. The positive to working with him was that the leader’s information was very helpful.

“Well, I am agreeing to take your offer. What do I have to exchange with you? You didn’t answer my question, please tell me your name”, Saihara’s uncle made his final decision.

“Just give me what I want. I will tell you later. Alright, my name is-” the leader was going to reveal his name.

* * *

 

“Ouma Kokichi”, his uncle finally finishes the story.

Saihara becomes interested in determining what kind of person Ouma is while listening to his uncle’s story. He asks his uncle what Ouma looks like in his appearance. His uncle tells him he will find out when they meet with Ouma tomorrow.

“Tomorrow?”, Saihara says, surprised.

“Yes, I want you to meet with Ouma”, his uncle says.

“Why didn’t he answers your question about why he’s helping you?”, Saihara asks one last question.

“I tried to ask him many times, but he won’t tell me”, his uncle says.

His uncle also warns Saihara that Ouma is very tricky and a difficult person to understand, but he still trusts him because he’s also a very intelligent and analytical person. He believes Saihara will be fine meeting with Ouma tomorrow. Saihara is not sure if that will be a good idea, but will go with his uncle’s plan even though he is now very nervous.

The next day, Saihara and his uncle walk on the sidewalk to the place where Ouma lives. Saihara wonders if it’s really alright to ask a person he never met to help him while he still feels nervous. He also feels guilty for not asking his two best friends to help. Saihara beings to suspect something, for they don’t normally take such long walks. He asks his uncle why they didn't drive.

“Please be patient. I went there many times. I know how to get there. You will find out why”, his uncle responds.

They keep walking on the sidewalk until they stop at an alley in the dark. Saihara notices something familiar about the alley and turns to look at something that unexpectedly surprises him. It turns out that the alley is next to his school! He’s now distracted from walking with his uncle.

“Please keep following me or else you will get lost”, his uncle snaps his finger at Saihara.

“Oh, I am sorry, I will come with you”, Saihara rushes to catch up with his uncle.

They enter the alley when his uncle finally says, “We are here”.

Saihara looks around their location, “Huh? I see nothing here”.

“We are going to enter through this”, his uncle points at a manhole cover.

Huh?!?! Wh-“, Saihara is in shock.

“Don’t ask me that. I was guided by the DICE gang to go that way to Ouma’s. Please bear with the awful smell”, his uncle can’t forget the crazy memory of the first time he was here.

Saihara and his uncle climb down a ladder to enter into the underground sewer. Once they enter, it is a dirty abandoned underground sewer that workers never finished cleaning. The atmosphere is creepy with a mixture of green and blue mold on the bricks, a dirty path, and stinky water. While they walk on the dirty path, Saihara suffers from the smelly air and water and notices many rats. Then, they stop at a wall next to a broken code machine. His uncle knocks on the wall and a video camera comes out from the ceiling.

“Please give me the password and a special key”, says a voice.

His uncle speaks the password while taking the key from his pocket. The key turns out to be a small king chess piece. The video camera scans the king chess piece that his uncle holding. The wall finally cracks and opens to be a secret door at the front of them. Saihara’s curiously eyes the key his uncle is holding.

“It’s not an original king chess piece, but a special handmade one. This is to make sure that not just anyone can enter, because the code machine can easily be hacked”, his uncle says in reply to Saihara’s curious eyes.

 _How strange that the key is a special king chess piece. It's very impressing that they have a secret door built inside the wall trick people_ , Saihara thought to himself.

His uncle opens the secret door that leads out to a tunnel. As they enter into the tunnel, the smell is much better than the underground sewer.

 _It doesn’t make sense that someone would choose an underground sewer for a secret room near the school,_ Saihara’s thought while continuing to walks with his uncle.

“Shuichi, we are finally here at Ouma’s secret room”. His uncle stops at the symbol of two triangles, with one that has both happy and sad faces and the other has the letter, “E” on a large blue circular door. There is also the name _DICE,_ which appears on the door, too. The door opens itself in front of them. Once they enter into Ouma’s room, his uncle calls out, “Hello, it’s me. Please come out”.

No one answers his uncle’s calls, but Saihara has a creepy feeling that people are staring at them from behind. People finally jump out from their hiding place in the shadows and shout, “Boo!”

“AHHHH!!!”, Saihara jumps and screams with fear, and then falls onto the floor. The gang appears to be wearing white suits with multiple straps wrapped around their arms and legs, and clown masks cover their faces. “Ohohohohohohoh”, they laugh.

Saihara is very confused while his uncle’s reaction is unsurprised.

“Surprise!”, someone shouts.

“It’s getting old. Please stop it. I’m sick of you guys keeping up with the same pranks when I come, his uncle is annoyed.

“Oh, you must be used to my prank, but I see a new person is scared now” someone comes out who appears to be short in stature, and has the same white suit and clown mask as the gang, but also has a dark, flowing cloak and a leather peaked hat with a gold badge.

Saihara notices the person wearing a cloak and hat and thinks to himself, _He must be the leader._

His body won’t move because he is scared crazy from the gang’s prank! His uncle gets him up, “I know how’re you feeling. The same thing happened to me my first time. You will get used to it. The DICE gang loves to prank very much, like I told you”.

“CORRECT! It’s really fun! I love your reaction when we pull the prank on you! Nishishi”, the leader laughs.

 _Nishishi?_ , Saihara thinks about Ouma’s strange word.

The leader realizes who he is, ”Oh, you must be Saihara Shuichi, your old man told me a lot about you”,  

“Yes, he’s my nephew and also my assistant. I’m always proud of him as he helped me a lot. Shuichi, meet Ouma Kokichi, the leader of DICE”. Saihara’s uncle introduces Saihara to Ouma.  

As Ouma slowly begins to take off his clown mask, he reveals his extremely pale skin, purple eyes, and short, wavy black/purple hair with tufts of purple highlights. He also takes off his hat and bows to Saihara, “Hello, nice meet to you”.

Saihara observes Ouma’s appearance. _I never expected the leader of a gang to be so small and innocent looking._

“I hope we will get along, Saihara-chan. Old man, what do you need me for?”, Ouma smiles at Saihara and readily listens to his uncle’s request.

“Well, not this time. I’m here to ask you for helping my nephew with his first investigation. I handed the file to him four days ago”, Saihara’s uncle asks Ouma for helping Saihara.

“Oh, do you need my help, Saihara-chan?”. Ouma shows his joy.

“Well, I guess-”, Saihara is unsure what to ask and wonders why Ouma addresses him by name.

“Alright, please follow me”, Ouma interrupts and beckons to Saihara, as he wishes to speak privately with him.

“Shuichi, you must go alone, as you have to do what’s needed. Remember, Ouma is a hard person to figure out because he is a liar. Don’t let him confuse and trick you”, Saihara’s uncle warns Saihara before pushing him away as Ouma starts to walk.

Saihara walks with Ouma while he stares at him and thinks, _Is that alright to ask the leader of a gang like him?_

“What?”, Ouma looks up at Saihara while Ouma still smiles.

“Oh, it’s nothing”, Saihara turns away and feels the awkward.

They walk to another blue circle door labeled with the kanji, name  “王”, that reveals Ouma’s room. Ouma’s door opens, they enter into Ouma’s room has the blue atmosphere and building, the wardrobe of clothes, masks, and equipment, two black leather couches in living room, and glass rectangular table in the cave. Ouma has the biggest blue chair. The cave room reminders Saihara of Batman’s secret room. Although he isn’t interested in superhero comics, Saihara often hears people talk about them on the street. Ouma puts back his hat and cloak into his wardrobe and sits on the couch.

“Come, sit with me”, Ouma pats the right side of his couch.

Saihara continues to listen carefully to what Ouma is saying.

“Saihara-chan, how’s my prank?”, he says with a smile.

“Ehh. Well, that’s prank really surprised and scared me very much, thanks to you and your gang”. Saihara doesn’t want to remember that experience.

“HeeHee. Nishishi. So, did your old man tell you about us?”, Ouma giggles.

“Yes, he did. You’re really strange for making your own mottos, ‘Don’t kill anyone’. Is that true?”, Saihara asks.

“So? Who’s knows? Maybe we can enjoy to torturing people and stealing things”, Ouma grins.

Saihara feels grossed out until Ouma confirms, “Of course, it’s a lie”.

“Huh?”, Saihara’s  eyes open wide.

“Oh, did your old man not tell you that part of me? I’m a liar, after all. HeeHee. Nishishi,” Ouma giggles.

 _Oh great, I understand my uncle’s warning now. I need to be careful. I also need to what is the truth or what is lie when Ouma is talking._ Saihara sighs.

“Oh, looks like you're struggling to figure me out. Huh. Good luck. I’ll tell you, my body’s made up of 70% lies!”, Ouma seems proud of himself.

 _70%?!?!? Is that a lie?_ Saihara’s feels his brain is going to explosion from the challenge. 

“Alright, I will stop talking now. Back to focusing on what you’re here for. What the problem with your investigation?”, Ouma excitedly listens to Saihara.

Saihara sighs and begins to introduce his investigation about the murder of Akamatsu, and his struggles with finding clues. Ouma asks him if he has any clues that keep bothering him. Saihara shows him the evidence of a gold necklace inside a plastic bag inside and mentions how it has always bothered him, as he knew that she never wore jewelry before.  

“Is that Akamatsu’s? Maybe she cheated on you with her new boyfriend”, Ouma’s assumes.

“Hey! She didn’t do it! We were together for one year! I knew she would never do something like that to me”, Saihara rebuffs Ouma’s theory.

“Chill. Relax. I just guessing. That’s all. Is that a personal matter to you?”, Ouma tries to calm Saihara down.

Saihara is surprised and unsure if he can tell him or not. Ouma confirms it is by reading Saihara’s facial expression He’s surprised Saihara would be involved with an investigation that is related to his personal life.

Ouma giggles and grabs the plastic bag from Saihara, who warns him it’s important evidence from the crime scene. Ouma stares at the beautiful gold necklace and thinks that maybe it would make him rich if he sold it. Saihara goes to take it back from him.

However,  Ouma explains again, ““Just kidding. It’s a lie. I’m a liar, after all. Nishishi”. He returns it to Saihara.

“Please be serious! We have to focus and not play the game!” Sahiara says angrily.

“Hahahhaha, I love your angry face. Save that evidence for now. Poor Akamatsu, she had a short life. I saw the news on television about her. I bet she is missed a lot by our classmates”, Ouma says.

“Yes, she is. Everyone...wait a minute, did I hear right that you said ‘our classmates’?”, Saihara catches on the word.

“Oops, I accidentally split on my secret now”, Ouma’s hand covers on his lip.

“Can it be you…”, Saihara realizes.

“Right. That’s me, the mysterious student who never went to school since the first day”, Ouma finally reveals.

“Why you-”, Saihara begins to ask Ouma why he doesn’t appear.

Ouma interrupts, as he knows Saihara’s question,  “It was really boring at school because there was nothing to do for fun. Plus, this is my research lab. I also created a separate room for my family from my room”.

 _I see now. Ouma’s secret room is next to the school because he is the student too.,_ Saihara thinks to himself, as he understands now. 

“Come to think of it, is it a lie that you saw the news about the murder of Akamatsu?”, Saihara realizes.

“Huh?”, Ouma didn’t expect Saihara to ask that.

“I know you guys have a television, but your research lab is next to our school. There is always the rumors around our school by faculty and staff and only my classmates and me. Did you play a hide and sneak game while you were in school?”, Saihara guesses.

“Oh no, you caught me again. Nishishi. Yes, I did it for fun again. I may not appear in the classroom, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t go to school. I just happened to hear the news spread around the school. Too bad our teacher hasn’t caught me yet. HeeHeee. What do you think of my research lab? It makes me feel like a powerful leader! Heehee. Nishishi”, Ouma giggles.

He then changes the subject back and becomes serious again, “Ahem. My answer is that I will help you with your investigation. However, did your old man tell you yet?”

“Yes, I have to exchange something with you that want, right?”, Saihara remembers his uncle’s story.

“That’s so good. I guess I don’t need to explain to you”, Ouma smiles, as he reveals that he has a note.

“Ouma, what do you want?”, Saihara looks at a note that Ouma holding.

Ouma beckons Saihara to come close to his face. Saihara is ready to hear Ouma’s request as leans in and whispers in his ear. He at once listens is impacted when Ouma says three unexpected words, “I want you”.

Saihara back off from Ouma in both shock and is flustered until Ouma clarifies on his answer, “Oh, I mean I want you to become my companion”.

In a confused state, he thinks of how Ouma has his own family. Ouma explains that he became interested in getting to know Saihara after listening to his uncle, who often talks about his nephew. Ouma asks if Saihara will take the offer or not. Saihara wonders how his uncle handled Ouma’s lies and trickery when they worked together on his investigation. While thinking about his answer to Ouma’s wish, Saihara feels that the DICE gang may be harmless, but he is still worried about what the consequences will be whether he chooses to accept or decline. His uncle’s voice inside Saihara’s head before meeting Ouma, _Ouma Kokichi is a very complicated person to understand. I can’t tell if it will do me good to work together with Ouma-san, but I put my trust in him for helping me with my investigation._

His uncle’s difficult investigation was a success thanks to Ouma. Since Saihara has no leads on the clues, there can  only be one way to find out about the murder of Akamatsu,

“Alright, Ouma-kun, I’ll do anything for my investigation. I will become your companion if you will help me”.

“Yay! Then, it’s decided! I’m so glad you agree! I can’t wait to get to know you better!”, Ouma shows his childish side and his eyes begin to sparkle.

“When will we start?”, Saihara says.

“Now. I prepare for this because I can predict. I wrote the first clue”, Ouma takes the note out from his pocket.

“Give it me”, Saihara speaks calmly and opens his hand while not giving away the fact that he’s impressed with Ouma’s prediction.

“Please wait. Before I give you the first clue, I would like to you give me one thing”, Ouma smiles.

“What is it?”, Saihara sighs and closes his eyes.

Something unexpected begins to happen as he feels so weird sensation on his lips. Saihara opens his eyes wide as he finally realizes, _Oume-kun kissed me?!?!?!_

Ouma is done with kissing, “That’s one thing you have to give me. How’s my kiss?”.

In a silent moment, Saihara doesn’t reply back to Ouma’s question. Ouma waves his hand at Saihara to check if he is ok or not. Ouma goes to look at Saihara’s face. He feels guilty when he notices Saihara has a look of shock and confusion on his face, “is it too fast, Saihara-chan? Saihara-chan??? Saihara-chan!!!!”.

Saihara jumps with surprise from the calling of his name, “Umm...yes..it is. I just met you”.

Ouma looks so disappointed at what Saihara saying, but hands the first clue to Saihara, “Forgive me for my action, but here’s the first clue”.

As Saihara goes to take the first clue, Ouma grabs and pulls Saihara’s arm and whispers in his ear, “The murder of Akamatsu had to do with our school. Our school was not what we thought”.

Saihara confusedly stares at Ouma and his heart begins to beat rapidly when he learns something new about school. Ouma pats Saihara’s head, “Thank you for visiting me. I ask you a favor, please keep our secret about the mysterious student our school being me. You can always come when you need help, but I also will visit you whenever I want to”.

Later, Saihara and Ouma come out from Ouma’s room when they finish with their business. Saihara’s uncle asks his nephew how it’s going with the meeting with Ouma went. Saihara responds that it went well and confirms Ouma will help him. Ouma tells Saihara’s uncle that he is really happy to have finally meet his nephew.

“Saihara-chan, I am very much looking forward to cooperating with you”, Ouma says excitedly.

Saihara’s uncle and his nephew bow, give their farewell, and leave Ouma and his DICE gang. The gang comes and curiously asks Ouma about what happened in his meeting with Saihara. Ouma confirms it’s nothing and Saihara just asked for help like his uncle. Three girls of DICE gang persuade Ouma to tell them more, as they want to know if Ouma finally gots what he wanted.

“I’m afraid not yet. I made my move on him too fast. So, I let him go”, Ouma shakes his head with his two upper arms.

“Aww!”, three girls’ exclaim with disappointment.

“Huh? It’s not like you to give up too early”, the tallest one member says with surprises.

“Do you think I’m giving up? His mind is still full of Akamatsu. I may let it go, but I need to change my plan”, Ouma grins.

“Ohohohoh, you never fail to be our best leader ever! That’s too bad that he didn’t remember you!”, an overweight male member says.

“Will you successfully capture a young detective boy’s heart although he didn’t remember you from two years ago?”, a female member with long pigtails asks excitedly.

“You will see it”, Ouma says, then thinks to himself in his a moment alone while his DICE gang still surrounded him, _Saihara-chan, you’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met. You gave me so much entertainment today. I’m very much looking forward to cooperating with you. However, more importantly for me, I must be careful that my true intention is not revealed, or else I will never get what I want._

Ouma slowly begins an evil grin ...


	2. First Dark Secret Came out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve finally post chapter 2, I’ve supposed to do it few months ago, but something happened to me and my beta readers. I didn’t expect I finish on chapter 2 so quickly. I guess my brother was too busy to help me on chapter 1 that make the wait for the longer. Move on now, I’m surprised most vote for continuing the story. I’m so glad to see them enjoy to read my fanfic. I was worried I might write the main characters might OOC at first, but I’m so glad it went well. I would like thanks to my two beta readers, @conrell on Tumblr and Ink on Animo apps. I’m so sorry for keeping you guys wait longer since we’ve had a busy schedule with our school and irl stuff.

Saihara’s crazy life began now. Instead of listening to his teacher’s lecture, he draws doodles on his notebook. Saihara feels worn out from meeting Ouma Kokichi, who turned out to be the mysterious student yesterday. It was the first time Saihara had ever been so surprised. He learned too many secrets about not only Ouma, but also those of the DICE gang as well. 

First the murder of Akamatsu Kaede, and then the connection his uncle had made with Ouma. Saihara’s still reeling from Ouma’s confusing, mixed signals riddled with both lies and jokes. He softly touches his lips, and blushes a little when he remembers Oumas kiss. Why did Ouma kiss him? Were those Ouma’s true feelings, or was he playing with Saihara’s heart? Saihara hopes he wasn’t.

 _I got kissed by a boy for the first time.... Wait a minute, why does it matter whether a boy kissed me? There was nothing different from my first kiss with Akamatsu-san,_ Saihara thought.

Someone appears in front of his desk, “Shuichi? Hello? Are you alright?”

Saihara jumps from being interrupted from his thoughts and looks up to someone who turned out to be Momota, “Oh, it’s nothing....”

“You look worn out, and your face is red, do you have a fever?” Harukawa appears next to Momota and touches on Saihara’s forehead.

Saihara waves Harukawa’s hand away, “I-I’m fine... it’s just.. A lot of crazy things happened yesterday.”

Saihara can’t tell them about his uncle’s secret as it’ll shock them both. It’s rather unlikely. A detective and the leader of a gang, being friends with each other?

“Wanna hang out with us today?” Momota asks, “We’re gonna try this new restaurant, and then we’re gonna do karaoke!”

“Thank you, but I’m afraid I still have to work on my investigation.” Saihara replies.

“Class dismissed! See you tomorrow!” The teacher says, then leaves.

“Aww man! You hafta take breaks. Don’t overwork yourself,” Momota pats Saihara’s back and leaves with Harukawa.

After he’s left alone, Saihara sits still at his desk as he looks at the note Ouma gave him. He wonders if it’s alright to open a note from Ouma, who he met only yesterday. He admits that Ouma is the most interesting student he had ever met, and It’s still hard to forget about their kiss. Saihara wonders if Ouma really did play with his heart or not. He feels like he’s going to get a headache from thinking so hard. He shakes his head, he has focus on the present now. Then he remembers his uncle’s story about Ouma being really helpful.

 _Here goes my first clue_ , Saihara thinks to himself while he slowly unfolds the note.

He reads the note silently. He closes, opens, turns and rereads the note many times in disbelief. He rereads it several times more to make sure he read it right. He wonders if he’s really the person he should ask the questions to. Saihara remembers what Ouma said about the school. Our school isn’t what we thought. It’s like Ouma’s voice’s inside his head. He doesn’t understand what he meant about the school. Ultimate Academy for the Gifted was just a program that began a few months ago. It’s possible Ouma had noticed something that Saihara hadn’t. He’ll have to ask Ouma later.

He looks at the sign, “Music Room” at the front of sliding door, look at the note that he finds the match on person’s name. He knew that person, Akamatsu’s music teacher. Memories flash, Saihara always went to pick up Akamatsu who had piano practice after school. Saihara shakes his head. He has to be calm. He opens the door. Saihara nervously starts to speak, “Hello, Yagira-sensei? Forgive me for interrupting you, but do you have time? I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Yagira-sensei stares at the window, then turns to Saihara, his face hidden behind his thick black glasses. A professor who was always mistaken for a student due to his looks. Yagira was a child prodigy of playing the piano, and was also hand-picked for becoming Akamatsu’s mentor by the school. All the chosen mentors are famous, professional, and prodigious people who get an appointed to their position by the headmaster, with the students themselves having the right to whether accept the choice or choose another mentor.

“Hello Saihara-san, you came at the right time. Sit there, I can play you piano while you can ask me questions.” Yagira gestures for Saihara to sit with him on the bench in the front of the piano.

Saihara freezes when Yagira says he’ll play. Yagira looks concerned and asks, “What’s the matter?”

Again, another beautiful memory flashes, Saihara and Akamatsu always used to play piano together. Tears began to flow out of his eyes, showing how much he’s been missing Akamatsu, and he wipes them away. Remembering what he’s here for, Saihara sits hesitantly with Yagira. He begins to play a song, Akamatsu’s favorite song. It’s painful.

Yagira admits he knows about the murder of Akamatsu, and gives the go ahead for Saihara to begin asking questions. Saihara isn’t sure what to do, Yagira being a high-level official and all. What kind of questions could he ask to find out his relationship with Akamatsu? Saihara formulated a proper sentence in his head, but it came out as “Umm…did she act strange before she died?” That was dumb.

“Yes, she did.” Yagira answered quickly.

“What was she like?”, Saihara writes that down quickly in his notes. He feels a bit more confident.

From what Yagira said, in the past, Akamatsu kept freezing while she was practicing, which was very unlike her. She never got distracted from her lesson before, and her passion never stopped. She was always a happy person, but something must have happened to impact her life like this. Yagria noticed her face had become extremely pale, and she looked worried and seemed to be scared of something. She began to fall into a darkness that she had never dropped to before, her eyes got swirly like she was in a confused state. Yagira frantically shook her and woke her up from her world, and asked if she was okay. Akamastu’s hands began to shake, proving she was afraid. Yagria decided to offer his advice to her, in hopes to help her feel a bit better.

Back to Saihara and Yagira, who were still sitting together, “What did you and Akamastu-san discuss with each other?”

“I just remembered, but she told me her problem before. I tried to give her advice, but…”

“That’s it?” Saihara was a bit disappointed.

“Well, there was the day Akamatsu had broken down and finally told me the reason behind her strange behavior.” Yagira realized he had said something rather important.

Akamatsu’s mood was easily shown when she played music. For example, she played beautiful music when she was calm, sorrowful music when she was sad, and loud, off-key notes when she was frustrated. One day, Yagira was walking in the hall and heard music he’d never heard before, causing him to get worried. Yagira went to his music room to check up on her, but once he opened the door handle…

He was shocked.

Akamatsu wouldn't stop playing even as her nails broke and her fingers bled. Her face was pale and damp with sweat, her eyes were swirling, and her expression was that of absolute madness. Akamatsu was expressing her insanity with music. Yagira quickly ran to her, “Stop! Please! Akamastu-san!”

She finally stopped. She turned to Yagira as tears started flowing down her cheeks, “I’m so scared. I’m so scared. I’m so scared! I don’t know what I should do!”

Yagira hugged her tightly while she sobbed. Later, Yagira treated Akamatsu's hands with bandages. She stared at her fingers after he was done. “Akamatsu-san, you will have take a break from playing piano. You will have to go to a doctor for your hands.”

“Yagira-sensei, I need to tell you something.” Akamatsu said.

“Don’t force yourself”, Yagira said.

“I have to, the truth is…I’m afraid of someone.” Akamatsu's eyes went blank.

Yagira finishes playing the final notes of Akamatsu’s favorite song. “I’m done.”

“Did she give you a description of the person?”, Saihara asked, still writing this down.

“No, she simply told me she was really afraid, but I have no idea who she was talking about. I wish she’d told me more, then maybe I could’ve helped her...”

 _I wish I could’ve as well_ , Saihara thinks to himself.

Did he do something wrong? No. They were supposed to be good friends, but she still kept her secrets from him. Why from him? Was she lying when she said she believed in him? No, it’s impossible, she always encouraged him to be confident in his skills. His expression darkens as he thinks about how little she trusted him. Saihara thought he knew everything about her, but it seems he never did. She told Amami first then Yagira second. Was everything a lie? Did he never actually know her at all?

“Saihara-san, don’t feel betrayed. She wouldn’t ever keep anything from you.” Saihara jumped. He forgot Yagira was even there.

“I swear, she kept secrets because she didn’t want to worry you. I noticed that she adored you so much. She was always so happy when you visited her here and was always excited to walk home with you.” Yagira tries to remind Saihara about her feelings.

Saihara doesn’t deny it. He wouldn’t forget how sweet her smile was, how warm her touch was, and how peaceful it was when she played her beautiful music. That music room was really special for them, it held memories of meeting, having lunch, and having fun, giving them both good memories. However, His gut tells him there is something really suspicious about her, even Yagira’s swears don’t help at all.

Someone interrupts their moment when they slide open the door, “Yagira-san! I came here to invite you out for a drink with me!”

Saihara and Yagira jump from hearing the loud voice, then turns and stares with surprise at the teacher.

“Oops, are you guys in the middle of an interview? Hello, Saihara-san”

“Hello, Yukimura-sensei, no, I am done for now. I’m going to leave” Saihara speaks to the person who turned out to be his teacher who babbled about the mysterious student.

“I will join you Yukimura-san when I’m done”, Yagira says.

Saihara and Yagira bow to each other to give their thanks and farewell. Saihara put his notes inside his pocket, he can’t help think about Yagira’s description about Akamatsu’s madness. He reaches for the door handle, however, Yukimura grabs his shoulder making him jump. He senses something crazy coming. She turns him quickly to face her, holding his shoulders tightly with her hands, “Saihara-san! I would like to make a request!”

Yagira trys to pull her away and tells her that Saihara has to work on his investigation, but Saihara tells him it’s okay and that he will listen to what she requests.

“Please find the mysterious student for me. The truth is, I know their name, but I keep it secret from my students, even you. Since you’re a detective, I thought about giving you the picture of mysterious student”.

Yukimura gives the picture to Saihara and tells him the name is Ouma Kokichi. Oh shit. He sweats and internally starts panicking, he regrets listening to her selfishness. He knew who the mysterious student is, who he just met yesterday! What should he do? Should he tell her? No, he can’t break his promise to Ouma just for the favor. He has to reject her request before it’s too late! It’s too late now. Yukimura grabs and holds both his hands.

“Saihara-san, I beg you to help me! I’m so tired of chasing him all the time! You’re my hope now! When you find him, please capture him then bring him to class!” Her puppy dog eyes makes Saihara groan, gets weaker, and accepts her request in the end.

Saihara was mad at Ouma. _Ouma-kun, thank you so much, you got me in trouble now. I’m going to kill you._

“Alright! I can count on you!” Her eyes began to spark. She grabs Yagira’s arm, “Come with me”.  

Yagira frantically tries to tell her he’s not done, but she doesn’t listen and still drags him away. Saihara now stands alone in the music room, “See you tomorrow! Please keep me informed Saihara-san!”.

 _I can’t believe I said it…….why can’t I say no....._ Saihara groans and starts immediately regretting what he’s doing.

Saihara walks back home, and quickly arrives at the detective agency. He tries to analyze his notes, realizing Yagira’s statement is similar with Amami’s. They both saw Akamatsu’s fear, but the new one is her madness. Oh shoot, he forgot to write Amami’s statement in his notes. He felt pain well up inside his chest, why didn’t Akamatsu tell him the truth? Not expressing her feelings, and hiding sides that he’d never seen before? Why didn’t she make an effort to work out their relationship with him? His depression starts to flow inside his mind again. Maybe he was unworthy of her trust. The feeling of anxiety begin taking over him….until he notices his uncle’s door opening.

That’s so strange, it isn’t like his uncle to forget to lock the door. Could it be a burglar!? He takes the pepper spray out of his bag, ready to defend himself. He slowly opens the door and walks in. His anxiety increases more and more, causing his body to shake, he doesn’t know what he should do. He takes a look around his uncle’s office. No one here. Saihara filled with relief, that is until the presence of someone appears behind him. He turns around quickly to push the button on his pepper spray, but his wrist is grabbed tightly by someone, causing him to drop the pepper spray.

“Whoa, that’s not very nice of you to do when you approach someone.” The person appears to have purple hair and a black and white scarf.

“Ouma-kun! You really scared me!”, Saihara feels relieved to know it was only Ouma.

“Nishishi~ You thought I was a burglar, right? Right? Well, maybe I am,” Ouma giggles.

“How did you enter my uncle’s office?” Saihara wonders if his uncle gave Ouma a key.

Ouma reveals that he has a small pouch containing tools to pick locks. “Ta-da!”

“Can you…” Saihara is shocked at the new things he learned about Ouma.

“Bonus, I lock picked that door. That’s another skill! That’s how I always sneak in anywhere for fun! Nishishi!”, Ouma is proud of his skills.

“I can’t believe it. How many skills do you have? So, what are you doing here? Are you here for my uncle?”, Saihara’s mind is going crazy.

“Remember I told you before?”, Ouma is disappointed.

“Huh?”, Saihara is not sure what he was talking about.

“I said I will visit you whenever I want to.” Ouma started pouting childishly.

Saihara realizes what he talking about. The memory of his kiss with Ouma, caused his cheeks to become bright red. Ouma’s got close to Saihara’s face and he asks if he’s ok. Saihara jumps, backs off, and walks far away from Ouma, backing against the wall.

“Relax, I’m not going to do anything to you. I just want to get to know you better.” Ouma raises his hands, showing he brings no harm.

“But-...you really won’t do anything to me, right?”, Saihara still suspects him and stays against the wall.

“Aww, you really hurt me. First, you treat me with the pepper spray, now, you still doubt me so much!” Ouma whines.

 _Is he fake crying?_ Saihara prepares himself, Ouma will do anything to him. Ouma starts to walk to Saihara, who prepared to defend himself. When Ouma got close enough to Saihara, he stares into his eyes and it seems like he’s going to kiss him….but instead Ouma grabs Saihara’s arm, his eyes gleaming with a childish spark, and declares, “Let’s play chess!”

“Huh?”, Saihara’s surprised.

“Please?” Ouma’s childish spark changed into puppy dog eyes.

 _Not again, why am I so weak against puppy dog eyes?_ Saihara groans.

Saihara agreed, and now they are playing chess together in the living room. One drinks coffee and the other has a Panta on the table. It’s really much more challenging than Saihara thought. He needs to think carefully on every move he makes and also observes Ouma’s master chess and strategies skills. He’s playing chess with his uncle before but never thought Ouma would be such a tough opponent. He makes his move and now it was Ouma’s turn. He quickly makes his move, which impresses Saihara. He praises Ouma’s skill.

Ouma is very happy to hear it and praises Saihara’s thinking and observing skills too. He also jokes that maybe he should become the ultimate chessmaster instead of supreme leader. Saihara agrees, Ouma being the ultimate chessmaster way less dangerous than supreme leader and also fits well with Ouma’s intelligence and strategies skills. Ouma disagrees, he pouts that he would much rather be supreme leader, which makes him feel powerful. Saihara signals Ouma to take his turn. Ouma looks at the knight piece that Saihara had just moved. He grins and asks him if he had a purpose to distract him by talking, he makes his move to block the other’s. Saihara denies it, he just happened to make his move on his own, and simply states he can’t beat Ouma’s skills.

“Aw, that’s no fun”, Ouma pouts again.

“I have to tell you something. Thank you for getting me into trouble”, Saihara glares at him.

“Huh?” Ouma smiles, confused and scared at Saihara’s glare.

“Yukimura-sensei, my teacher, she made a selfish request for me to find and capture you, Ouma-kun”, Saihara says, still mad.

“Oops?”, Ouma didn’t expect to hear about Yukimura’s request.

“To make things worse, I accepted her request in the end because she had to use puppy dog eyes! What should I do? How am I supposed to lie to her? I had to keep it a secret about you because you asked me!”, Saihara was starting to panic now.

“I’m sorry, but my secret needs to be kept hidden. Nishishi, I’m impressed with Yukimura-sensei. It’s really fun that she’s trying to chase me out. I promise you, I will figure something out. Please wait for me”, Ouma makes his decision and gives his promise to Saihara.

Is that another lie? “But….” Saihara still wasn’t sure if he could believe him.

“Shhh….remember I’m the supreme leader? Let me handle it for you.” Ouma put his finger to his lips and smiles.

_Why does Ouma make decisions like that? Alright, I will let him do what he wants just this once._

“So, you live with this old man. Where are your parents?” Ouma notices there are many pictures of only Saihara and his uncle on the drawers. Saihara freezes and doesn’t answer Ouma’s question, but eventually deicides to calmly answer, “I hardly know my parents because they live overseas for their jobs”.

“Oh, where do they live?”, Ouma gets even more curious.

“Hollywood in the USA. How about your parents Ouma-kun?” Saihara asks back.

Once Ouma hears Saihara’s question, his expression turns serious and silent for three minutes. Saihara predicts that he’s going to lie again and thought that he shouldn’t have asked him at all, but then again… Ouma asked first.

Then suddenly Ouma answers with gusto, “My dad was a famous phantom thief! I’m proud to have a father like him!”

“Stop. How can that be possible? Be serious, tell me the truth.” Saihara sighed. _I knew it. I really shouldn’t have asked him in the first place._

“Heehee, you caught me again. Good job, my beloved Saihara-chan.” He laughs again. “The DICE gang is the only family I have, no matter whether we’re related by blood or not.” Ouma says.

They begin to chat with each other about their backgrounds, about how they found their talent, got into the Ultimate Academy, their hobbies, favorites things, etc. Saihara sensed a strange atmosphere between them - he notices how Ouma keeps changing the subject whenever he asked about his past.

_No matter how I ask Ouma-kun about his past, he won’t talk about it. Yet he wants to get to know me better. If so, why won’t he let me know him too? He won’t let me get close to him physically either._

Things he observed on Ouma’s way of speaking and behavior. He decides to try one more time, but then Ouma interrupts and asks how his investigation is going and that catches Saihara off guard. He’s almost impressed with how adamantly guarded he is about his past. Saihara has no choice, he explains what happened in the music room at school, he tells him about Akamatsus madness that he learned about from Yagira, and admits how it’s turn out he didn’t know everything about her.

“Was my note helpful at all to you?” Ouma asks hopeful.

“Yes, it was.” Saihara confirms.

Then he starts admitting his feelings, “Was I… just not worthy to be her boyfriend? She didn’t tell me what she was so afraid of. Yes, I know Yagira-sensei and Amami both said that she just didn’t want to worry me, but why did she tell them and not me?”  He said, dejected.

The air in the room was heavy. The room fell silent again, Ouma doesn’t know how to answer Saihara in this kind of heavy situation. Why did Saihara have to tell Ouma about his feelings? Ouma saw Saihara’s pained face, so he asks if he would like to review the file about the murder. Saihara agrees.

_The victim’s body was discovered lying down on a wood bench behind the water fountain in the park, Belief of Love. The estimated time of death is 2:45am. The victim had a choke mark on her neck and many scars covering her face. She had a wound on her head indicating something hit her, but was not the cause of death._

Belief of Love is a popular park where couples spend time together and give faith, confidence, and trust to each other. That’s Saihara’s and Akamatsu’s special place that they’ve always met to hang out, eat, and share. Saihara’s heart pains as he recounts the memories.

“Weird” Ouma says.

“Huh?” Saihara comes back to his senses.

“The killer stabbed her, strangled her, cut her, and more, but why take the time to wound her head?” Ouma analyzes on the cause of death.

“Maybe the killer tortured her at first to make her suffer, failed to kill her by hitting her on the head, and successfully killed her by possibly strangling or using a weapon to choke her.” Saihara creates his theory about the method of killing.

His body begins to shake, he can’t image what he would do if he witnessed that. He would probably go crazy. Ouma doesn’t turn down Saihara’s theory, he decides to figure out the cause of death and method of killing later. He asks him for the gold necklace. He wants to check it again. Saihara picks it up from the table and gives it to Ouma.

_Why does he need to check the necklace again?_

Ouma analyzes the golden necklace for two minutes until he spots something. “There is a hair stuck on the necklace”.

“What?”, Saihara never realized that he overlooked it.

“This”, Ouma picks a piece of hair out from the necklace.

“It’s Akamatsu’s hair”

“Why not send it in for a DNA test?”, Ouma suggests.

Saihara was going to reject Ouma’s suggestion, however, since Ouma suspects something strange about her scars, he figures it can’t hurt to run a DNA test. They silently stare at each other for three minute until Saihara goes to the kitchen and picks up a plastic bag from a drawer. When he opens the plastic bag, he walks back to Ouma, “Give it to me. I will do it”.

“Heehee, I’m sorry I criticized your work”, Ouma returns the gold necklace to Saihara.

“No, you had a good point. I need to be careful with my critical thinking skills without jump to conclusions and overlooking things”, Saihara admits.

He sits back down and they continue playing chess and change the subject to the interview with the first clue. Ouma asks Saihara what Yagira said about Akamatsu’s madness. Saihara recaps Yagiras feelings and thoughts about her, their relationship simply teacher and student, but even still, Yagira offered his advice to her when he noticed she was acting strange. She told him who she was afraid of. Ouma asks an unexpected question, if Saihara really believes in Yagira at all. Saihara felt confused, he saw Yagira as a pretty harmless teacher and respects him for being a prodigy. Ouma reminds Saihara, “Remember I told you, our school is not what we thought?”.

“Yes, you did, but I don’t think Yagira-sensei had to do anything with the murder”, Saihara doubts Yagira could be involvement in the murder of Akamatsu.

“How the naive of you. You need to be more suspicious. Do you think he’d tell the whole truth? Not only Yagira, but maybe Amani too?”, Ouma warns Saihara about people that will hide their true selves or the whole truth.

Saihara realizes Ouma’s right, he learned Akamatsu had a secret and might have been a different person than Saihara thought too. Finding the truth is supposed to be Saihara’s job as a detective. There still are things in the world that Saihara doesn’t want to learn, the dark things he’s dug up are putting a lot of pressure on him. It’s also risking his friendship with Momota and Harukawa because of all the secrets he’s been keeping.

“Why did you claim our school is not what it seems? Tell me.” Saihara gets more interested in Ouma’s warning.

“I can’t tell you. You have to find out and see for yourself. I suggest you check out the faculty and staffs’ backgrounds. Students’ too”, Ouma encourages.

Again, it’s going to get more difficult for Saihara while trying to figure out what Ouma means. He really wants to find out who killed Akamatsu quickly or else, he might not be able to hold his true feelings any longer. Saihara looks at the first clue again then, he realizes he doesn’t need to only look into the staff, but should also watch for clues to link Akamatsu’s murder to the school. Saihara knew there was something fishy, but didn’t expect the school to have darker secrets. He’s afraid of the consequences, but he need to find the truth.

“I’ll listen to your suggestion”, Saihara finally agrees and moves his chess piece.

Suddenly, someone interrupts the two, it turns out to be Saihara’s uncle. He asks them if he interrupted anything and Ouma shakes his head, “Nope. I’m finished now. Checkmate!”.

Saihara is in shock that he never noticed Ouma’s trick beating him. Ouma looks forward to playing chess with Saihara again, glad that he has an opportunity to spend time with him. Finally, it was time for him go to home. Before Ouma leaves, he gives a small black king chess piece to Saihara. “Here’s your special key like your uncle’s. I made a special handmade one, nishishi”.

 _How could he make a piece that small by hand?_ Saihara tries to analyze his special key.

Ouma waves his hand in front of Saihara’s uncle and him, “Saihara-chan, we need to hang out again soon”.

When Ouma closes the door, and awkward silence falls throughout the room. His uncle is surprised Ouma came to visit, since he had always had to go visit him. Saihara’s uncle is curious why Ouma took an interest in Saihara. Saihara admits he has no idea what Ouma’s true intention are.

“What’s your impression of Ouma after your first meeting?”, his uncle stares curiously at him and analyzes Saihara.

“I told you, I have no idea. Stop staring at me, it’s creepy”, Saihara feels uncomfortable at his stares.

Ouma arrives at his home, and enters his secret room in the underground. He passes his hat and coat to one member and goes to his own room. In his room, he picks up the biggest file book from his bookcase, sits on his couch, and opens the file book. It reveals that he wrote notes of his analysis and predictions, has both biographies and pictures of sixteen students and staff too, and information about the Ultimate Academy for the Gifted.

“How boring. My predictions came to be correct in the end”, Ouma feels like he can’t do much but wait at the moment. He rifles through the files of the sixteen students, and stops.

“However, you’re the one I can’t figure out even after I beat you at chess, huh... You’re more interesting than I thought”, Ouma brushes his fingers on the picture of Saihara and kisses it.

Ouma dumps the file book on his table, and goes to pick up another file book from the bookcase, and reads it. The truth is Ouma secretly watches Saihara when he’s investigating and finding clues, hanging out with his friends at school, and spending his free time reading novels at his home. That’s how Ouma took so many pictures of him for his file turned stalkerish scrapbook. As he reads, he wonders why he made the suggestion about DNA testing on Akamatsu’s hair in the first place. He guesses that he wanted to cheer up Saihara, but he’ll rely on her only once. Ouma doesn’t want to mention her again so Saihara can forget her. Ouma has to stick to his plan or else his true intentions will be found out quickly. In his excitement, Saihara will slowly fall into Ouma’s arms once he trusts him. Ouma’s obsession with Saihara slowly begins to awaken….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to share, spread, and give thoughts my fanfic if you like it so much. I also love to hear you can give the feedback on what I need to improve my writing and story.
> 
> I recently wrote some fanfic for secret Santa and Amamatsu week, feel free to check it out on my AO3 or Tumblr!


	3. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys, I’m sorry for keeping you guys wait longer! I was a very busy much with college and my summer online classes will start tomorrow! It will be only 6 weeks. So, my beta reader would like to drop out of their position for their personal reason. That’s mean there will be grammar errors you notice in the future. If anyone interested in becoming my beta reader, PM me (look at the below)!
> 
> Warning: It can happen a bit something you might not like but don’t worry, it won’t happen. 
> 
> So enjoy it!

Once upon a bright world surround cherry blossoms are fall and float down on the floor from the trees. A quiet boy is relaxing lying down on the ground in the surround of cherry blossoms, opening his eyes, looks at many pieces of cherry blossoms keep to fall on him. He’s get up, dust it off his clothes, and look around to figure out where he is. He's really overjoyed at how beautiful cherry blossoms represent to be so peaceful. The one cherry blossom piece come down on person’s palm hand, a cherry blossom magically transform into a pink rose begin to bloom, his feeling can open for love. Who’s the wonder he supposes give the pink rose to? And maybe it’s for love? “Saihara-kun”, someone voiced so beautiful melody.

  
He recognizes her voice once he hears her that’s would give him cheer up, it’s his girlfriend, Akamatsu Kaede. Saihara follows to find where her melody voice come from and walks on the path is created for him. He once stops when he's found and watches Akamatsu plays the beautiful music on her piano. She’s gesture Saihara have to sit with her, they could enjoy to play it together. He takes his seat next to Akamatsu, hand a pink rose to her, and she’s joyful takes and smells at it. Recognizing a pink rose really match on Akamatsu’s clothes and her blushes cheek, Saihara gently grabs it from her hand, put it on her ear next to her hair, and softly touches on her hair to cheek. Akamatsu really becomes so beautiful once her bright smiles would make Saihara forget about everything of his problems. They're finally playing the classic music together match on their atmosphere and Akamatsu’s aroma. Saihara really enjoys it and wishes it can stay forever like this until one drop on his left hand. It’s a red look the blood…..

  
He turns to see where the blood’s come from……..

  
Akamatsu has breathed so hard he can feel, her pale face appears with sweat, her eyes have swirls, and expression turn into so madness! Her fingers have the blood a lot even her nails break by doesn’t stop playing it! He is going to reach her and call her name, “A-“.

  
“Akamatsu-san!!!!!”. Saihara yells while reaching, and finally awake.

  
He realizes it’s a dream when he's noticing at the ceiling in his own room. A crying boy’s groans, can’t stop to breathe and sweat on his face a lot. His dream must come from Yagira-sensei’s statement, he can’t stop to forget Yagira talked about Akamatsu’s bloody hands and her expression of madness. His body’s being to shake how the horrible music she expresses her madness he has ever hear. Everything’s being much more pain once he’s let his emotion takes over him. Why’s always everything get worse about he never did know her well?

  
Next day, it’s can be good day might fade a nightmare away. However, it’s not, it’s after school now, Yukimura calls to class dismissed. Saihara’s packs his things inside his school bag and get to ready leave, but Kaito’s stop him while hold on his shoulder. Kaito asks Saihara if he’s okay at all, notices on Saihara’s not only black circle eyes, but he's starting to look unwell now. A tired boy tries to tell him he’s fine at all in order to not make him worry, but bread man still worried and notice on Saihara’s begin to act on his strange behavior and pushy tells him don’t get burden a lot on himself. His best friend does have a good point about feeling must get out by telling him what’s the bother detective boy about, but he can’t and it’s too complicated. Kaito tries to warn it’ll be not good about holding the feeling, encourages Saihara to tell the truth, and going to shake his shoulder, but Saihara feels much pressure cause he begins to snap…and……….....slap away Kaito’s hand!

  
“THAT’S ENOUGH! Do you want to know what I did act so strange? Fine! I had a horrible dream about Akamatsu’s madness last night! We’ve been so peaceful together until I’ve noticed her hands got hurt! I COULDN’T STOP THINK ABOUT WHAT DID I DISCOVER ABOUT HER!!!! IT’S SO CRAZY DREAM I HAD EVER!”. Saihara yelled angrily cause Kaito get jumpy so unexpected and never seen his reaction before.

  
Saihara’s get breathes so hard, looks at Kaito’s shock face, and realizes on his unlikely behavior when he's looking at his shaken hand. He’s an idiot now, it’s not like him being yelling at his own friend……….ashamed of himself…………bows of apology at Kaito. A positive boy forgives and understand him and admits he’ve been made it too far and doesn’t mean to be too push him because he’s very worried at things might getting unwell for Saihara. He confusedly asks him what’s his horrible dream about Akamatsu’s madness about and does it related to his investigation. Answering the question will be too complicated, but instead, Saihara declares he’ll explain everything when his investigation will be over.

Kaito’s going to convince, but realize Saihara’s decision, decides to shut his own mouth, “Promise me, don’t hold everything inside your feeling or else, it will get worse. You’re not alone. Remember it”.

  
Saihara swears on his promise with Kaito, cross on his heart, prays himself his investigation will not get longer. His secret might cost the price on his friendship, it’ll not get so easy about that’s school possibly have many dark secrets. All students might do nothing, but focus on their talent at the first, but slowly develop their friendship once they learn what they have to do together more than just talent for their purpose. Look at all students finally enjoy their life at the school, have ups and downs, but much fun. That’s why Saihara’s hesitate to tell the truth once he’ll solve the mystery of everything.

  
In the hall, Saihara is walking and muttering himself, still thinking about his horrible dream of Akamatsu’s madness relate to Yagira’s statement, something bothers inside his feeling. While can't stop think and miss her so much, he decides to visit Akamatsu’s research room. Saihara entrances into her research room, stares and reaches to touch on beautiful black grand piano with many music sheets on the floor, take CD music out from his school bag and put it into the CD player. Listening to the music can help him relive his stress, does it need to necessary to play the piano? He always watches at Akamatsu play it or play it with her together, but he’s unsure how to start it. Since a depressed boy can’t get out his horrible dream from his head, he has to do it in order understand how she felt when she played her piano. He takes his seat, stares at the keyboard, and his finger shakily reaches to touch one of the keyboards. Saihara’s really so scared, feel so trapped in his nightmare give burden a lot on him but he being pushy on himself in order to do it. His body finally stops to shake once feeling the hands softly touch his neck, is it someone who murdered Akamatsu-san? Is he fall into his dream again? Wait a minute………….it’s real from his neck feel it’s very skin touch softy!!!! Does someone find out his investigation and try to kill him????? Saihara feels he might get choke.

  
An anxiety boy still unmoved, doesn’t know what to do and how to get out, takes his pen out from his pocket and quickly stab on someone’s hand without his thinking. Saihara’s turns around to see who is it, takes his breathe so hard, and his body shakes again even his left hand still hold his pen. “Ouch, how’s not nice of you when you approach me again, it’s really hurt so badly”, someone’s finally voice Saihara once hears would back to his sense, rubs on his injury spot hand.

“Ouma-kun., please don’t do it again. I’m middle in observe on the piano because of my horrible dream. You’re interrupted and scared me out of it. Don’t play to kill me”, Saihara really get exhausted now, sit down on the seat, sigh so hard.

  
“My bad, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to. I want to test you to see if you could defend yourself or take cautious of me or dangerous criminals like detective did. Nishishi”. Ouma lightly chucked.

  
A short boy curiously asks what Saihara’s horrible dream about. Saihara states so coldly it has nothing with Ouma and asks back him what he’s doing there. He’s here to see what Saihara do in the school, play around like he's always done, and admits he’s been so stalker. Ouma also points out, “That’s part one is truth and another one is a lie. Heehee, Nisnishi”. Saihara sighs and doesn’t have time to think and play the game with him. Noticing on Saihara’s exhaustion, Ouma’s starts to convince Saihara to tell him about his horrible dream and what he’s doing there in Akamatsu’s research room. A tired boy can’t fight back or resist him, explain what his dream of how peaceful in his own time with Akamatsu until she appeared to have much blood on her hands as her madness, visited her research for his personal reason, but decided to try to play the piano in order to get out the nightmare of his head. Ouma laughs so much, “I can’t believe Yagira-sensei’s statement been so influenced by your dream!”

  
“It’s not so funny”, it’s so stupid about telling Ouma about his dream. However, he also doesn’t deny Ouma has a good point on the part about his dream keep inside his head from Yagira-sensei’s statement. It’s really so unfair in his life when everything turns into darkness about Akamatsu’s madness and he never keep his secret from his two best friends before, but he has to remind himself of his goal, but wondering it is for the best or not if deeply dark secrets keep hidden forever like an image of a girl throw away the key and her locked box never open forever. His thought gets interrupts when Ouma’s face appears in the front of Saihara and ask him if he’s okay. Saihara still too tried to startle as unsure about how he’s feeling now, his stress takes over him. The liar boy notices his stressful, decides to make the topic off by want to discuss the first clue, and ask if Akamatsu was so close with another professor. Saihara know only Yagira, but Ouma’s confuses, thinks he will interview more professors and asks to read the first clue again.

  
Saihara groans take the first clue out from his pocket, read it. “Professor, that’s it”.

  
“Wait, you just miss the last letter”, Ouma’s finger waves and his facial expression of “huh, duh”. He’s quick grabs it from Saihara’s hand, read it, show it while the point at “Professor”. Saihara’s so bewildered at the first, how can he miss the simple word until realizes what Ouma try to point out what Saihara’s misses the small part. He takes a closer look at the first clue. Oh………it’s………”s”…..word….in…”Professor”. “Professors”.

  
“Omg, I thought you’ve been gotten be careful, but you're really overlooking that small part so important”, Ouma snickered and mocked at Saihara’s careless. A calm boy apologizes to be a disappointment for Ouma, but Ouma declares it lies; it’s okay to overlook it sometimes. He reminds him doesn’t forget to his suggestion of check on faculty and staffs’ and students’ profile, it might find more clues. Of course, Saihara’s plans to, but he has a second thought, it can be impossible because the files are so private in the headmaster’s room plus the door always locked, it never allows anyone enter expect faculty and staffs. Ouma reminds again Saihara’s the detective anyone can depend, doesn’t think the headmaster doesn’t’ allow because it’s so important task. He’s still so nervous what the risk he’ll take, insists he’s still a student and an appreciate at all. The truth is he’s never want to be the detective at the first place. All he did is just happened to solve the first case so quickly and everyone praised and recognized for his detective skill. His stressful being oppresses him in his energy get down unit feeling smack on his back.

  
“Come on! Don’t feel so down! I know it’ll be so difficult, you have to take the risk, but remember you have a goal of this case, right?”, Ouma’s smiles, explains his experience of his gangs and him took many risks their lives to stealing many things even kill. Saihara’s so confused about Ouma’s mottos, but Ouma clarifies they killed before they changed their mind due their feeling guiltily to create their own mottos. An appreciate detective still not believes in him, but strangely feel a bit better by Ouma’s encouraging that’s similar with Akamatsu did when Saihara felt so down about what was his talent had the purpose for.

  
“Alright. I have to get forward”, Saihara’s finally ready for getting his action and standing up for himself. Ouma ‘s eyes have the tear come out that shows how he’s so happy and proud of him, it’s hard to tell which it’s fake tears or not, but it does not matter now; it’s so important to focus. A worried boy notices Ouma’s blood start to drip the blood, he wants to treat on Ouma’s injury hand. A childish boy tells with a smile, Saihara doesn’t have to worry about him. However, Saihara wants to do it since he feels so guilty of stabbing on Ouma’s hand in the first place, tell Ouma to take his seat, and pick up his emergency kit case out from his school bag. He opens and takes it; the antibiotic cream, band-aid, water bottle, and blue and black stripes handkerchief out. A quiet boy gently grasps with Ouma’s hand. Opening the cap of the water bottle, pour little water is drip on Ouma’s injury spot like the sound of rainy, and use the handkerchief to clean and stop the blood. Then, Saihara opens the tube of the antibiotic cream, put it on Ouma’s injury spot to prevent infections, and finally, puts the band-aid on it, “Done”.

  
An excitement boy stares at the band-aid, his face shows happy while his eyes have sparkle so much that Saihara suspects, I’ve hope I’m wrong, but Ouma-kun look much happy to seem more as it looks the truth. Why’s he’s so happy once I gave my treatment?

  
“Wow….I don’t expect you really care for me, I’m so happy!”, Ouma still excitedly stares at it. Saihara’s blush, denies it, and he just doesn’t want to Ouma get an infection, that’s all. He gives his own handkerchief to surprise Ouma. Ouma asks it’s okay for taking it, Saihara nods as to tell him he has an extra handkerchief. An excited boy receives the handkerchief so excited much and yells, “Thank you!!!!! The detective boy’s bids, “see you later” to Ouma, leaves Akamatsu’s research room as Ouma watches Saihara leave so silently, turns to look at the window. He enjoys to stares at so beautiful color of the sky in the sunset, hold so tightly and smell on Saihara’s handkerchief that he’s really happy of receiving the gift by someone’s kindness in his first time ever life! Ouma now owns Saihara’s thing now!

  
Now, Saihara may know what’s he need to do; ready for taking his action, but……..look at…….big door……with the………symbol of their school………..like the headmaster! The truth is the headmaster has so secret identity since the first day of the school even appeared to be the shadow on the television screen on the entrance ceremony, and their voice is so mysterious made all students were so curiously. No ones know why the headmaster able been hidden in their identity even Saihara and other detectives don’t know too. When the students or staffs and faculty visiting, they don’t allow to enter into the headmaster’s room, but they have to listen to the door when the headmaster uses the microphone to speak with them. Of course, anyone can try to enter, but the headmaster’s doorknob has electric security system can cause them get their paralyzed state. The possible is an only special person who’s know well the headmaster allow them to enter into their room, but no one knows who is it or witnesses there as none the evidence appear yet. Saihara’s much nervous don’t know what should he asks the headmaster, and wonders if it’s really okay at all to ask the profile of staffs and facility in their own private. He thinks to himself, Ouma-kun, it may be so easy for you can say simply asking; you have the power of manipulation, but unlike me, I’m not confident in myself to do that. He finally lightly knocks on the door, “Hello……Headmaster? I’m here to make the request relate to my investigation”.

  
No one’s answer would make the awkward and silent moment he has until the headmaster finally speaks, “Oh hello, Saihara-san, what do you need to? I’ve heard you’re currently working on the investigation about the murder of a late student. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t guarantee you as it depends on what the request you’ll make”.

  
He has a second thought of his request might to be impossible because staffs and faculty have their right to own private life but it might worth try, and make the request for it. In silent moment again, Saihara awkwardly convinces he’s aware it’s so private, but it might help to lead his investigation. Still silent, he thinks to himself, I knew it. The headmaster refused to give it to me. I’m sorry, Ouma-kun.

  
Saihara’s going to leave but hears the sound in whoosh from the door as the headmaster really puts and pushes the file under the gap of the door in their unexpected action. He looks over his shoulder, and………..

  
….it’s the file of staff and faculty profile. Is it’s really okay to take it? Why higher of the position like the headmaster’s give it although it’s so pretty risky. The headmaster speaks the words sound truth that they understand him about what he has to do his job and believe in him will do the right thing by finding the truth. However, the headmaster orders him to keep his investigation in secret, and they don’t want to make the panic around the school can cause them lose their reputation. Saihara bows down to the door in his expression, “Thank you” and finally leaves to his research room. In his research room, he takes her relax time by drinking the tea, reading the profiles of staffs and faculty, and often taking the turn of pages. Groaning at the files turn out simply name, birthday, blood-type, height, weight, and more like normal information at many schools. No matter how many times he read it, it won’t help him enough find the clue at all even their short background doesn’t. He begins to suspect something’s bug about the files possible to not match well but shakes away his thought as he might too much thinking. A tired boy drops the files spread on the floor and his stressful get increase more now. It’s time for him go home as he realizes it’ll be late if he's staying too long.

  
In the city, Saihara now walks on the street in the crowd at 5 pm and still can’t stop to think about his horrible dream and the profiles of staffs and faculty. Why the first clue has nothing lead to finding the evidence? Did Ouma-

  
No. No. No. No. No. No. No! NO! He doesn’t think Ouma makes so fool of him if he seriously helps him. Saihara have to get faith in Ouma and figure the meaning word behind, “Professors”, but why there is nothing lead to finding the evidence? Of course, he has to do it for Akamtus’s sake, but……….

  
………everything is too complicate……..dark……secrets…..is so hard……to find……..He doesn’t want to know everything!!!!!! The depression boy wants to get over so quickly!!!!!! He develops his suicide thought, maybe he better……..until see Yagira appears in the crowd. What the professor like him doing in the crowd like that city? The detective boy’s going to greet him; want to ask him again about Akamatus relate to his horrible dream bothered him, but noticing Yagira’s facial expression………..that he………never…..see…before. Yagira often turns his faces on both sides that he's acting to check out if no one follows him. He quickly leaves right out of the crowd that makes Saihara suspect. A hesitant boy debut himself there are two possible; Yagira need to hurry go to practice on the piano in secret location or hide himself something Saihara doesn’t learn yet, but his guts tell him to follow Yagira. He goes out of the crowd too and wonders it’ll be okay for following the prodigy like him. A former prodigy child must aware the risk he’ll take about his reputation for Japan if he's really hiding at all. Saihara doesn’t realize Yagira starts to run so quickly……oh no……did he notices…him…?

  
Saihara mustn’t lose him by starting to run to follow Yagira! He keeps to chase him, how’s so long he keep run as his breathing so hard? Yagira runs so easily though many people still walk and Saihara struggle with it as he feels so block by them. He finally makes it, takes his breath so hard but he realizes…..oh no……he really lost Yagira! His terror begins to get crazy in his head when he looks for him until finds Yagira enters into the right alley, he's so relieved and quickly follows him. When entering the alley, no one’s there, but just giving the suspense and creepy in a dark tone. In his shock state, how can Yagira disappear like the magic? Saihara slowly walks on the path, looks for the clue how Yagira disappeared, he worried in his sense of danger might come to him. A serious boy decides to get move on forward, slowly walks in the alley, spots on the case on the floor picks it up and opens it turn out glasses case must belong to Yagira. Analyzing and observing on the glasses case while the situation in so creepy alley as he looks the club can lead to the possible secret passage until something hit him so hard in the back of his head. Feeling so brutal, he’s collapse down on the dirt path, still doesn’t drop the glasses cases, try to see who hit him, but his eyes start to get blur.

  
Hearing their voice of the group is argue each other in their panic state, “What should we do with him?”

  
“Just leave him like that as long as he’ll give up when he realizes Yagira-san’s gone.”

  
“Wait, I want to check out him, I promise we won’t kill him. I’m really so curious”, the leader wears a spike choker, walk toward him.

  
He picks up him, holds Saihara’s chin, “Whoa, looks at his symbol, that’s must mean he’s from famous elite school who’s scout talent students! Look at him, he has so pretty face and smooth skin!”

  
“I’d wonder I can make him feel so good”, he starts to unbutton on Saihara’s uniform………….

  
Someone grabs the leader’s back of his clothes that drag him away from Saihara! When the leader look over his shoulder and his group look up at someone, their bodies begin to shake that they’re really afraid of someone is a very big tallest who wear clown mask! Other clown mask people appear so quickly behind the biggest one and then a person has a scary voice come out behind them, “How dare you…….”

  
He’s still in injury state, try to hear a voice to figure out who is it, but his eyes still have the blurry, his brain starts to get unconscious in the process.  
The leader’s unsure what should he makes his excuse, but his group whisper behind about their first impression that they unexpected to see the leader of the clown-mask group is so small. They once speak the word, “elementary school kid” they suppose doesn’t………..

  
The atmosphere starts to get fire around them when the chessboard scarf leader begins piss off while clown-mask group getting so excited, “I normally got piss off when they mocked on my height. However……..most…..piss……off…….at…..me…………DON’T TOUCH ON MY BELOVED-“

  
Saihara finally has fully unconscious like his brain is dead in everything are so dark.

  
Saihara feels he’s fall in do deeply darkness, possibly die? No, his body feels lying down on something’s so soft. He slowly blinks his eyes, still in blurry get the process to get so clear, and see the top of ceiling look blue/black rock like a cave. A confused boy once finally gets fully conscious, take look around and spot on the glass table, the equipment of clothes and masks, and big blue chair that he realizes it’s……

  
“Hello, my beloved Saihara-chan! Are you finally awake now?”, Ouma opens his door and appears to carry the food tray.

  
……Ouma’s room. He wonders how he did get in Ouma’s room, realizes he remembers what happened at the alley, reaches on his back of his head and once touches it've been to reveal the bandage. Ouma puts the food tray on the glass table, “dinner” for Saihara, excitedly take a leap toward to the couch, and sit on it while Saihara still lying down. Saihara inquires him what was happen during the incident of the alley. Ouma demonstrates that they found him who was the collapse on the path, noticed Saihara had an injury spot on his head, ordered his DICE to carry him to his secret research room, and gave the treatment on him. Saihara catches the part of Ouma’s lie about he doesn’t tell what’s happening to a man and his group almost doing worse to him, but he decides to keep close his mouth for himself as long as Ouma better didn’t kill or torture them. However, feeling it must to be important, he going to ask if it was really Ouma possibly save him, “Ouma-kun…”

  
Ouma cut off out it, “You didn’t have to raise your voice, today was the sure so pretty long day. Please getting relax, your health comes first! Don’t worry, I’ll let your uncle know you’ll stay at my place. Nishishi!”. Ouma pushes him down against the pillow, pats on his head, declare good night. Saihara still trying to………..ugh…….. he's giving up for now by his body feel so heavily exhausted, it’s so pretty blunt everything on him about many secrets, his eyes slowly take the blink……down to finally close it while Ouma smiles; watches at it.

  
Ouma reaches toward him, softly touch on Saihara’s hair to cheek in the sense of so smooth, play to poke on his cheek. He takes a lean forward close Saihara’s face, spot on his eyelashes and lips, pick up his hand and look at the size, Wow, his hand had a pale and softy touches, his eyelashes had a long, and lip look so softly glitter too he would look a girly, but he’s really so beautiful even his sleep face. Yes, everything so beautiful about him in his emotion, actions, thoughts, and……..

  
Looking at Saihara’s lip, Ouma begins to make his own move to lean toward him so slowly. Oh, his lip seems to go to touch against his………………like………kisses……on……his………….forehead, “Oh, I’d almost kiss him, but I promise him I won’t do anything to him even he really doubt me at all, ninishi. Kissing on the forehead won’t hurt”.

  
A prank boy still stares at Saihara’s sleeping face, still pet on his hair; joyful, “I wonder what would happen to me if I haven’t met you two years ago, I might become a worse person; it’s also would whole screw up in my life. Oh wait, I’m involving in the petty crimes, that’s right. Oops. Nishishi. However, that’s my purpose to find you and you also can find me too. Helping you is the way of my thanks for you really save me two years ago………..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to share, spread, and give thoughts my fanfic if you like it so much. I also love to hear you can give the feedback on what I need to improve my writing and story.
> 
> Again, contact me on Tumblr if anyone interested in becoming my beta reader: http://jwisdomhheartmmoon.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to share, spread, and give thoughts my fanfic if you like it so much. I also love to hear you can give the feedback on what I need to improve my writing and story.


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